Field
The disclosure relates generally to electronic circuits, in particular, to apparatuses and methods for adjusting source voltage based on operating voltage response.
Background
Increasingly, providing operating voltages to integrated circuits (ICs) is becoming an issue. For example, wireless communication technologies and devices (e.g., cellular phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) have grown in popularity and use over the past several years. These electronic apparatuses have grown in complexity and now commonly include multiple processors (e.g., baseband processor and application processor) and other resources that allow the users to execute complex and power-intensive software applications (e.g., music players, web browsers, video streaming applications, etc.). To meet the increasing performance demand, these processors have increased in complexity and operate in frequencies in the gigahertz range. As a result, the operating voltages of the IC would need to meet the various demands.
The operating voltage may be provided by a source voltage at a power supply. The source voltage may be set at a voltage margin above an operating voltage threshold to account for design and process variations. An operating voltage threshold or VMIN may be a minimum voltage at which a circuit may operate satisfactorily for various requirements (e.g. speed, function, power, etc.).
However, if the source voltage (e.g., the voltage margin) is set high above the operating voltage requirement, additional power may be consumed unnecessarily. As a result, battery life may be shortened, and additional heat may be produced while operating these processors. Accordingly, one design challenge is to adjust source voltage (e.g., the voltage margin) to meet the operating voltage requirement without excessive voltage margin at the source voltage.